The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council has expanded its charter to include all chip-enabled payments and payment applications in the United States, including EMV, contactless payments, NFC-enabled payments and applications, mobile payments, and chip-enabled e-commerce.

The Council has also announced its new officers and steering committee, including new co-chairs Simon Hurry from Visa and Oliver Manahan from MasterCard.

“With most of the world moving to EMV chip payments and experimenting with other chip-based applications, the big question within the U.S. payments industry is, ‘How would chip affect the United States?'” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “The Payments Council has worked tirelessly this year to examine this very question, providing extensive educational material on chip-enabled payments, including EMV, contactless and mobile payments, and chip-based solutions that enable innovation and help address counterfeit fraud.”

With its expanded focus on all chip-enabled payments, the Payments Council published a number of resources for the payments industry this year, including new Web resources for information and news on EMV (“EMV Resources”) and Near Field Communications (“NFC Resources”). The Council also held a webinar on “Top 10 Reasons U.S. Should Consider EMV” and published the white papers “Chip-Enabled Mobile Marketing,” “EMV Chip Cards Expected for Upscale U.S. Cardholders,” “Fraud in the U.S. Payments Industry,” and “End-to-End Encryption and Chip Cards in the U.S. Payments Industry,” all available on the Payments Council Web site.

“The Smart Card Alliance Payments Council is an organization that brings together industry players that may have divergent disciplines but are still focused on commerce,” said new co-chair, Oliver Manahan, VP of MasterCard Worldwide. “We are in store for an exciting year in the payments industry, with many contactless transit payment projects in development, and buzz continuing to grow for mobile payment. It will be valuable to discuss and debate the economic impacts related to chip-based payments and applications in other areas, and create resources based on those findings.”

The Payments Council is made up of over 150 individuals from over 50 organizations, including card issuers, payment brands, merchants, financial payment processors, terminal vendors, card manufacturers, chip vendors, systems integrators/consultants, and personalization bureaus.